Haines Logo Text
Column Archive
October 1, 2014:

THE OCTOBER COUNTRY

Bruce Kimmel Photograph bk's notes

Well, dear readers, may I just call attention the fact that it is October.  Yes, you heard it here, dear readers, it is October.  And they say we don’t have up to the minute news here at haineshisway.com.  And to that I say phut.  We are always with it and happening, especially in October, which is, by the way (BTW, in Internet lingo) the tenth month of the year.  And it is my fervent hope and prayer that October will be a month filled with health, wealth, happiness, creativity, and all things bright and beautiful.  Bring all of that on because I want it for all of us.

Yesterday was quite a nice little day.  I got eight and a half hours of blessed sleep and that was a very good thing.  Once up, I did my morning ablutions and then had a lunch meeting at Hugo’s with our very own Sandy Bainum and Michael Sterling.  I was rather amazed that there were a lot of empty tables at the prime lunch hour – I wonder if people have moved on to Granville and other newer places.  Believe me, in the City of Studio that is exactly what happens.  The meeting lasted about ninety minutes and whilst it was happening I ate my beloved pasta papa, which was yummilicious in the extreme.  After the meeting I went to the mail place and picked up a couple of small packages, then came home.  I then listened to the Sandy sequencing to see if I was still happy with it and lo and behold and also behold and low, I was.  So, I sent the order to Sandy and Lanny so they could hear.  Lanny got right back to me saying he was very happy with it, and I’m waiting to hear from our Sandy.  She’d been to Teddy prior to the meeting and her hair looked rather sexy and wonderful.

After listening, I did a little comparison of the now three Blu and Ray releases of Once Upon a Time in America.  Having been led to believe that the newly released extended cut was the same as the Eyetalian Blu-ray, I was somewhat relieved to find that it was not.  The Eyetalian Blu-ray was a complete travesty with totally brown color and terrible milky contrast.  The new US Blu-ray of the extended cut is better – better contrast and slightly better color, but still color that is nowhere near what it should be.  I believe they did it on purpose so as to match the newly added footage, which is from substandard elements and all of which looks dreadful.  If they’d had the correct color that new footage would look even worse.  But here’s the thing – the new footage should never have been made part of the film.  Mr. Leone was ultimately on record as saying the 229-minute version was what he wanted.  At some point he toyed with the idea of having a five hour version (maybe longer) for Eyetalian TV, but he finally thought better of it and never did it.  Personally, I feel he and his cinematographer would roll over in their graves if they saw this new “thing.”  Happily, the previously released Blu-ray has perfect color.  The film has three distinct “looks” to it – in the new extended transfer you wouldn’t know that at ALL.  But in the previous Blu-ray those three looks are perfectly captured.  No, the detail isn’t as good as the new 4K transfer, but I don’t care – I only want to watch the 229-minute version and only with correct color.  In fact, the previous Blu-ray looks like the release prints did back in 1984.  I know, because I had one.  There is plenty enough detail in the previous Blu-ray for me.

Then I got a CD of our next release and played it immediately and it’s superb.  We’ll announce it in the next couple of weeks, but it’s a title that will be a very quick sellout and boy do we need one of those right about now.  Then it was time to mosey on over to Donald Feltham’s to tape the Broadway Radio Show.  It was me, musical director Joshua Eli Kranz (whose parents also came along to listen), and cast members Kyra Da Costa and Kristin Towers-Rowles.  It was a lot of fun and Donald will be editing in two phoners he did with Jason Graae and Brent Barrett.  That took about an hour, then I went to Gelson’s and got some snacks, then came home.

I then watched the first half of Sundays and Cybele on the new Criterion Blu-ray.  Everyone here knows of my love for this film, and I’ll have plenty to say once I’ve finished the new Blu-ray today.

Today, I have a lunch meeting during which I shall eat lunch, then I’ll hopefully pick up some packages, then I’ll come home, write another set of liner notes, and then relax.

Tomorrow is our second Kritzerland rehearsal, Friday I think I have a lunch meeting in the Bank of Bur, Saturday is our stumble-through, and Sunday is sound check and show.

Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, have a lunch meeting, hopefully pick up packages, write, and relax.  Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Ask BK Day, the day in which you get to ask me or any dear reader any old question you like and we get to give any old answer we like.  So, let’s have loads of lovely questions and loads of lovely answers and loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland.  And, if I haven’t made it abundantly clear, it is my fervent hope and prayer that October will be a month filled with health, wealth, happiness, creativity, and all things bright and beautiful.

Search BK's Notes Archive:
 
© 2001 - 2024 by Bruce Kimmel. All Rights Reserved